Why Did Euler Choose 'e' for His Famous Chain Theorem?

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Euler chose the letter 'e' to represent his famous constant, approximately equal to 2.718281828459045235, primarily due to its association with the term "exponential." The notation first appeared in a letter to Goldbach in 1731, but it was not until 1748, in his work "Introductio in Analysin infinitorum," that Euler provided a comprehensive treatment of the constant. The discussion emphasizes Euler's modesty and the historical context of naming conventions in mathematics.

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Mathematicians do not name things after themselves. This is doubly true if the idea to proven can be done so (or if it can be disprioven) from elementary calculus (and is a special case of something extant). So, how about stopiing the rampant egotism?
 
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'rampant egotism'...


'Orion1' is not my name. It is the name of a stellar constellation.

As for the elimination of 'rampant egotism' from science, do we really want to discuss that type of philosopical hyperbolae, do we? :biggrin:
 
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The names given to theorems are never given by the person so named. Other people name them after the person who invented them, and occasionally they get it wrong, when it becomes clear that it is important, needs some distinguishing label and the oringator deserves credit for somethnig clever. There are two notorious trolls on sci,math who grandiloquently name (incorrect) mathematical 'theorems' after themselves. It should have been apparent that you weren't in that mould, sorry.
 
Euler, who first introduced the number e=2.71... used the letter e.
He probably claimed it came from exponential... yeah right :-p
 
Egotism..

the notation e made its first appearance in a letter Euler wrote to Goldbach in 1731. He made various discoveries regarding e in the following years, but it was not until 1748 when Euler published Introductio in Analysin infinitorum that he gave a full treatment of the ideas surrounding e.

Euler gave an approximation for e to 18 decimal places
e = 2.718281828459045235

Yes, that is definitely \sumgotistical... :biggrin:
 
the fact that exponential starts with an e (and not an S) mightn't also have something to do with it?
 

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